Did you know that most people begin online shopping by searching on Google and other search engines? The wifi Talents report revealed that 44% of shoppers search a search engine to find the products they want, and 53.3% of all website traffic is organic.
Therefore, optimizing an ecommerce store is vital. It helps more people find your store and decide whether to visit it. If you want your online store to be visible to a broader audience, it must be well-optimized.
So, what are the critical SEO practices for an ecommerce website? This post will take you through the simple steps to begin Ecommerce SEO for your store.
But first:
Table of Contents
What is Ecommerce SEO?
Ecommerce SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a broad term encompassing several practices to help increase your online stores’ visibility and rankings in search engine results pages (SERPs) like Google and Bing. It focuses heavily on optimizing the category and product pages, which are the two critical aspects of an online store.
However, optimizing the blog content is equally essential. It helps shape a brand personality and reaffirm and strengthen the store’s online presence.
Why is Ecommerce SEO Important?
Ecommerce stores’ essential survival is based on their ability to attract customers. That’s where ecommerce SEO comes in. Ecommerce SEO helps generate organic traffic for your store, which results in sales.
Here are the main benefits of doing Ecommerce SEO:-
Better Search Rankings Increase Traffic and Sales
The number one reason for doing ecommerce SEO is to be found on the top page of search engines. You must optimize your website to rank higher on SERPs.
Ranking high translates to more clicks, as many people click on websites ranking high for a keyword. In fact, according to Backlinko SEO company, pages on the first page receive 27.6% of all the clicks.
Therefore, optimized stores result in more clicks, which are web visitors. These visitors can eventually become customers, which increases your store’s sales volume.
So, conduct Ecommerce SEO for your store to boost its organic traffic and potential conversions.
To Drive Brand Awareness
E-commerce SEO boosts a website’s visibility in search engine results, making it a low-cost brand awareness strategy.
When a brand appears on the first page of Google or answers a searcher’s question, the brand name sticks in their minds.
The name also remains at the top of their minds, and they may consider visiting the store when they want something related to what the brand offers.
Also, if they encounter the same brand name during their searches, they will remember and endorse it.
Moreover, some endorse brands that rank well, increasing their chances of clicking on them. They also endorse brands that connect with them and offer value.
Filling the Marketing Funnel
A marketing funnel is the customers’ journey from learning about a brand (Awareness) to the buying stage (Action). Ecommerce SEO plays an integral role in this.
The standard sequence of a marketing funnel is awareness, interest, desire, action, and loyalty. Optimizing a store helps create brand awareness, which leads to developing interest and willingness and eventually taking action (purchase).
As they move through the funnel stages, keyword choices shift from informational to transactional. So, targeting the ideal keywords and optimizing your store for them captures the shoppers’ journey from one phase to the next.
Improving the User Experience
A well-designed site is optimized for users. Optimization keeps shoppers’ interests in mind by understanding their needs and satisfying their search desires.
A good user experience and navigation features encourage users to stay on the site. This leads to taking action, translating to high conversions.
Moreover, using the right keywords that communicate the user’s needs improves their experience on the site. SEO is thus an essential aspect in enhancing the user experience.
Google also considers user experience a ranking factor.
If many people click on your site but bounce a lot, Google may assume that your site could be more desirable or that its content needs to be tailored to a query, which can hurt rankings.
Creating Lasting Value
SEO is a long-term investment. Unlike paid ads, where the value of SEO ends when a campaign ends, organic traffic stops coming if your site isn’t indexed. Over time, the site’s organic traffic creates lasting value that is good for business.
Simple Steps to Begin Ecommerce SEO
Here are six steps to begin ecommerce SEO for your online store:
Step 1: Ecommerce Keyword Research
The first step is to find keywords. Keywords are high-value search terms that you try to rank for in search engines and that your potential customers are using.
Keywords reflect the search intent, which can either be:
Navigational: This is where the user desires to find a particular page or website. For instance, “Shoppe Get Started” or “Walmart Login.”
Informational: Shoppers researching information about a particular product use informational keywords, such as “how to use a vacuum cleaner.”
Commercial: This is where users seek to analyze different products before they take action, such as “Top vacuum cleaner brands in the market.”
Transactional: Here, the user intends to buy a product. For example, “buy vacuum cleaner online.”
Top Keyword Tools for an Ecommerce Store
When it comes to keyword research for your ecommerce store, you need keyword research tools. These software applications help users analyze search platforms’ most frequently typed words, including Google, Baidu, Bing, Yahoo, etc.
They also help you find the words you type most on shopping platforms like Shopify, Amazon, and Alibaba.
With these tools, you can compile a list of words or phrases, known as keywords, and how much they are being searched (search volume). As an ecommerce entrepreneur, you use these keywords in your site’s content, which increases its visibility as searchers type the keywords.
When well optimized, your site appears at the top of the results list when these words are searched, increasing trust among searchers and leading to organic SERP traffic.
Best Free Keyword Research Tools
Some keyword tools you can use without paying a penny, and others require you to invest some cash.
So, which are the best keyword research tools? Let’s start with the best free keyword research tools:
Google Keyword Planner – Best for Paid Keywords
Google Keyword Planner is first on our list of the best free tools for keyword research. But why does it clinch this position?
Google Keyword Planner is completely free. It offers more than a comprehensive list of keywords and related details, making optimizing your ecommerce content easy.
This potent keyword research tool includes two primary features to assist your keyword research process. One feature focuses on exploratory and discovery keyword research, while the other allows you to go deeper into details like search volume or forecasting of these keywords.
So, how does this work? The process is easy. To find new search term ideas, click “Discover New Keywords.” Then, enter a word, term, brand name, or phrase known as the seed term, and click search.
Finally, click “Get Results.” The tool will generate a list of keyword ideas, plus other details, including monthly search volume, competition, bid ranges, ad impression share, and change over time.
The Google keyword planner is also handy for finding volumes and forecasts for various keyword ideas. Click “Get Search Volume and Forecasts” to upload a file or enter your existing keywords.
Pros of the Google Keyword Planner
- Free forever
- If you purchase Google ads, you get access to incredible forecasting features crucial for budgeting
- It helps you to organize keywords to see how they fit into various categories.
- It gives you access to some of the widest lists of keyword ideas
- Offers access to negative keywords to avoid
- Helps you to create new campaigns stemming from an in-depth research
Google Keyword Planner Cons
The only drawback is that while it’s an incredible keyword research tool for PPC (pay-per-click) keywords, it could be more helpful for organic keyword research.
Moz Keyword Explorer
Moz Keyword Explorer is another excellent free keyword research tool for optimizing your e-commerce store. The tool enables you to search for any keyword and offers access to its monthly volume, click-through rate (CTR), and keyword difficulty.
It also shows the current ranking of results for the keyword and suggests similar keywords. By offering simple metrics like minimum domain authority and keyword difficulty, you can quickly prioritize your keywords to help you increase your chances of ranking.
One incredible feature of Moz Keyword Explorer is its Keyword Gap feature. With this feature, you can identify the primary keyword that your competition ranks for. This gives you an upper hand, allowing you to create even more optimized content to outshine your competitors.
Moz Keyword Explorer pros
- An extensive set of free tools
- Straightforward prioritization metrics
- It gives more accessible keyword data than most tools of its kind
- It allows you to not only generate keywords but also to save the list.
- Let users search for keywords by region or country to better their international SEO strategies.
- It helps you to predict the likelihood of your business ranking for those keywords.
Moz Keyword Explorer cons
- The free Plan is limited to only ten queries/searches per tool monthly
- It offers fewer data parameters than other tools in this list
Google Search Console
GSC is also a power-free SEO tool that e-commerce businesses can use to grow their search engine visibility. It allows you to track, optimize, and maintain your site’s visibility in Google SERPs. The data here is beneficial since Google is the largest search engine, holding around 91% of the entire search market share.
Google Search Console provides e-commerce businesses insights about search queries (Keywords), website indexing, and click-through rates. This data helps you to:
- Identify the ideal keywords to target and improve your SEO.
- Discover optimization opportunities that help your e-commerce business gain increased organic traffic
- Track your ecommerce site’s search performance
- Resolve various technical issues, giving your site the best chance to be better represented in the search index.
Finding the right keywords gives your business the best chance to appear in your target audience’s search results.
However, GSC works differently from other keyword research tools on this list. It doesn’t have a search feature for keywords you can rank for.
Instead, it analyzes your current site’s content to identify the keywords performing well and those not. This allows you to find ways to improve the less-performing keywords.
Google Search Console Pros
- The most effective free way of tracking your site’s visibility on Google
- Easy integration with other tools
- It’s user-friendly
- Allows you to understand your keywords’ performance
- It helps you to analyze your top-performing and least-performing keywords
Google Search Console Cons
- It doesn’t offer the option of keying terms to generate keywords to rank for
Keyword Surfer
This Surfer SEO’s Google Chrome extension helps you generate keyword ideas from Google search results and see their search volumes.
When you make a new Google search, Keyword Surfer helps you uncover insights on keyword suggestions, content word content, keyword search volume, related terms, on-page data, and visibility metrics.
With this tool, you can generate keyword collections, allowing you to bookmark essential keywords without searching them separately on Google every time. You can also export these collections conveniently as CSV files when needed.
In other words, Keyword Surfer enables you to streamline your research for content creation without moving from a Google results page.
Keyword Surfer Pros
- It’s 100% free
- Fast loading to search results
- You don’t need an account to start using this tool
- It’s user-friendly
- It suggests similar keywords
- You can see most of your keyword research metrics from a single point
Keyword Surfer Cons
- Not available in every country
- In some cases, the word count for the content is not accurate
- The keyword surfer has no extension for Firefox
- It doesn’t offer keyword difficult metrics
- It doesn’t provide data for every keyword
Note: The tool also shows cost-per-click estimates if you opt in.
Other free platforms to complement your keyword research include:
Answer the Public
Answer the Public is a potent tool for keyword research. This search-listening and audience research tool can help you unravel people’s Google queries about different topics. Once you register on the platform, you can use free credit to research up to three daily queries.
So, how does it work? Answer the Public gets autocomplete data from search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo and inspires you on relevant topics. It gives you short and long-tail keywords that you can use for your online store.
Google Trends
Google Trends is a free real-time tool that shows what people are searching for. The platform provides data that you can use to examine the specific keywords’ search interests over time.
You must type in a keyword idea and select whether you want worldwide or country-specific results. The platform will then show the top and rising searches for that particular keyword.
Amazon and Google AutoComplete
When you type a search query into a search engine like Google or a marketplace like Amazon, you will find that it autocompletes/predicts your query. In other words, it provides several suggestions of terms and sentences that it assumes you’re trying to search for.
Such autosuggestions are a goldmine when finding keyword ideas, particularly when you already have a few keywords in mind. This is an excellent way to generate keywords for free. Google also has “Related Searches” and “People Also Ask” sections that you can use to hunt for keyword ideas.
Amazon has product-focused keywords, and you can filter extra details like prices. Also, please search for the products on Amazon directly on Google to view their product menus and how they sort and organize products to get keyword ideas for product categories. Do the same for significant competitor platforms like eBay.
Then, find metrics for the keywords you gather, including the search volume and keyword difficulty (KD). Then, you can decide whether to use the keyword for your store.
Best Paid Keyword Research Tools
Besides the free keyword research tools, you can go for the paid options. These offer more features, giving you better search results and, ultimately, better ranking. Some of the top contenders here include:
Semrush
Coming first on the list of paid keyword research tools is Semrush. This comprehensive keyword research tool helps you to find the most suitable keywords to incorporate in your ecommerce SEO. Some of the most valuable features on this tool include:
- Keyword Overview: This tool quickly finds keywords’ search volume, competitive density, cost-per-click, keyword difficulty, and top-ranking pages.
- Keyword Magic Tool lets you discover millions of keywords from a single search. This also helps you find questions and keywords based on your market or website.
- Topic Research allows you to gather more keyword ideas for your select keywords generated from the Web’s most relevant and popular content.
- Keyword Gap: This tool helps you uncover the main keywords for which your competitor’s content is ranking. It compares up to five competitor websites.
- PPC Keyword Tool: It enables you to create a keyword list that suits your PPC campaign best.
With these and more features, you can easily optimize your ecommerce store to match or outshine your competition.
Semrush Pricing
Semrush has three pricing plans for your keyword research project as follows:
- Pro Plan at $129.99 monthly: This Plan is ideal for small teams and individuals and gives you access to 5 projects, 500 keywords, and 10,000 results for each report.
- Guru Plan at $249.95 monthly: Ideal for mid-sized businesses and agencies, this Plan offers 15 projects, 1,500 keywords, and 30,000 results for each report.
- Business Plan at $499.95: Ideal for large agencies or enterprises, this Plan offers 40 projects, 5,000 keywords, and 50,000 results.
However, you can try these plans for free before deciding.
Ahrefs Keyword Explorer
Ahrefs is similar to Semrush in more than a dozen ways. However, Ahrefs comes packed with even more features. For instance, its design is more intuitive.
With Ahrefs, you can estimate the number of searches that translate to actual page visits, allowing you to see the effectiveness of your efforts. Clicks-per-search metrics also help users identify traffic-generating keywords to help avoid dead-end options.
The main benefits of Ahrefs keyword explorer include:
- Allows you to compare historical and current data for a site
- It helps you to see your backlink growth or decline.
- It enables you to measure a keyword’s full traffic potential.
- Let someone make a good discovery of low-hanging keywords.
- Shows a keyword ranking history on a site over time.
Ahrefs Pricing
Ahrefs has the following pricing plans:
- At $129 a month, the Lite Plan offers five projects, six months of history, and 500 credits for each user.
- The standard fee is $249 monthly: 2 years of history,20 projects, and 750 monthly credits.
- Advanced at $449 a month: 5 years history, 50 projects, 1,000 credits for each user.
- Enterprise at $14,999 annually: Unlimited history, 100 projects, and customized credits.
Term Explorer
When you want an even more comprehensive tool, consider the Term Explorer. It’s among the most potent keyword research tools, offering some of the most profound keyword research reports for any query. You get over 10,000 suggestions from a single seed term.
Even better, Term Explorer is famous for maintaining the most relevant results and offering extensive supporting metrics.
It provides essential data for every result on Google’s first page, including keyword difficulty, link strength, number of results, and trust score.
This tool can also be instrumental in helping you stay ahead of your competition. So, you can research metrics like domain age, links, page ranking, outbound links, word count, etc.
Term Explorer Pricing
It has three plans, namely Basic, Pro, and Agency.
- The Basic Plan costs $34/month for one user(s): Keyword Discovery Tiny Jobs: 100 per Day, Keyword Discovery Small Jobs: 2 per Day, and Keyword Analysis: 2,000/month.
- The Pro Plan costs $97/month for one user(s): Keyword Discovery Tiny Jobs: 1000 per Day, Keyword Discovery Small Jobs: 10 per Day, Keyword Discovery Large Jobs: 2 per Day, and Keyword Analysis: 2,000 per Week.
- The agency costs $499/month for one user(s): Keyword Discovery Tiny Jobs: Unlimited, Keyword Discovery Small Jobs: Unlimited, Keyword Discovery Large Jobs: 20 per Day, and Keyword Discovery Mammoth Jobs: 4 per month.
How to Select the Right Keywords for Your Store
When searching for keywords, targeting the ideal ones for your store is essential. You cannot target every keyword in the industry.
Additionally, you must pick the ones with a higher chance of ranking and those with high searches from your potential customers. To decide the keywords to rank for, consider the following factors:
Volume
The higher the number of shoppers searching for a particular keyword, the more the potential organic traffic to your store. Therefore, using keywords with high search volume is vital.
Intent
Targeting search terms that show the user’s intent is also crucial. Intent can be to get information, navigate, commercial, or transactional. Examine the user’s intent and then use the keywords to provide solutions to the user.
Competition
The keyword’s competition should be low. The less competition, the higher the chances of ranking for a keyword. The keyword research tools show the competition as keyword difficulty (KD) or Search Difficulty (SD). Pick the keywords with the lowest numbers.
Relevancy
The relevancy of a keyword matters. So, find out how relevant your category page and product page are to your keywords. Then, stick to those that fulfill the needs that your products would sincerely satisfy.
Step 2: Work on Your Store’s Site Architecture
The site structure is the structural layout of a site or how your store is organized. It determines how your web pages link to each other. For instance, the category pages should link to the subcategory and product pages.
How your store is structured impacts the user experience (UX), affecting the search rankings. It’s crucial to make it easy for visitors and search engine bots to navigate.
When working on your site’s structure, it’s essential to consider the following:
- Scalability: The website will be affected by stock movements.
- Simplicity: The store structure should be easy to navigate, and every page should be reachable with just a few clicks.
Avoid scenarios where visitors must keep clicking the back button to navigate the store. The only way to achieve this is to ensure that the visitor can skip clicking so many times from the home page.
Remember, the homepage has the most authority. Also, the more clicks away a page is from the homepage, the more a visitor loses interest and the less authority a page has. So, the golden rule is that any page should be at most three clicks away.
Here are the six key elements to check when working on your site structure:
Page Indexing
Web page indexing refers to how search engines analyze new pages before adding them to their database.
Search engines like Google know that your web pages exist through this process. The search engine algorithm then ranks these pages based on their value to the user.
Without page indexing, search engines can’t see your pages. They cannot be displayed to users or your target audience if they are invisible.
Page indexing can usually be done in three ways:
- Submitting a sitemap
- Letting the crawlers do the job
- Requesting indexing for your pages manually
However, in most cases, Content Management Systems allow new page indexing by default. But that’s when your pages meet the necessary indexing requirements.
Some reasons why your page may fail to be indexed include:
- A “Noindex” tag in a page’s HTML bar allows Google and other search engines to index it.
- Content that needs more value. If Google deems your content unimportant to the user, it doesn’t index it.
- Duplicate content. In most cases, Google and other search engines do not index duplicate content.
- Canonicalization. This is when you have several versions of a page and mark them as non-canonical. Then, Google won’t index the page.
- Sitemaps. Creating sitemaps notifies Google that you have published a page that requires crawling and indexing. Without sitemaps, your pages may fail to be indexed.
From this, page indexing is crucial as it marks the start of your site’s visibility journey.
URL Structure
The URL structure is the next crucial aspect of your site’s structure. Well-structured URLs help Google quickly locate and retrieve your e-commerce site pages. Therefore, your URL structure determines how easily your target audience can see your product pages.
Generally, the URL structure should follow the site’s categories. For example:
https://example.com/category/subcategory/keyword-keyword
While not all URLs follow this simple structure, it’s paramount that you use the same structure for all your site’s URLs.
Also, ensure that your URLs are user-friendly. They should be easy to understand and use valuable keywords for a specific page.
Generally, your URLs should contain the following:
- Your site’s domain
- Category
- Product’s name
For example, https://topdesigners.com/menfashion/gymshoes
Internal Linking
The best ecommerce site structure depends on how you’ve linked your pages. Internal links usually connect one page to the other on the same website. Both search engines and site visitors use these links to find more content on your site.
Internal links also help with navigation and improve your site’s SEO. They distribute page authority among various pages on your website.
So, how do you achieve the best internal linking practice?
Identify the Hub Pages on your Site
These are usually pages that generate the most traffic for your site. Usually, the pages target broad, short-tail keywords rather than specific long-tail ones. For ecommerce sites, these are traditionally the category pages.
If your shop sells women’s clothes, an example of a hub page could be “women’s swimsuits.”
Build Topic Clusters
Topic clusters are groups of posts and pages with related topics or information that are linked internally to each other. Because of these clusters, search engines can better understand your website’s hierarchy.
These clusters help search engines view your site as an authority on a particular topic. For instance, if you have a wedding store, you can pick a broad term like wedding accessories and rank for keywords like wedding hair, nails, and gown accessories.
Inserting Relevant Anchor Texts
Anchor texts are visible, clickable texts of a link. They are the actual phrases or words linking to another page.
You should ensure these words or phrases are keywords of the other page you’re passing traffic or linking to. Anchor texts are essential for SEO and readers.
Boost Certain Pages by Linking them to Authority Pages.
Your site’s authority pages are those you’ve linked to authority websites through backlinking. Use the authority on these pages to boost rankings on specific pages on your site through internal lining.
You can find authority pages on your website using Semrush, Ahrefs, or Netpeak Spider tools.
Have a Mobile-Friendly Menu
A mobile-friendly menu is another crucial consideration regarding a site’s structure. It improves website structure, which leads to a better user experience.
Currently, over 60% of website visitors use mobile devices. This means that you need to be very keen on how mobile-friendly your site is. Remember, poor customer experience regarding navigation within the site can increase your bounce rate and reduce sales.
A menu that’s easy to navigate is instrumental in creating a user-friendly website structure.
Breadcrumb Menu
A breadcrumb menu is a navigational aid designed to improve user experience on your site. Generally, this feature helps a user locate precisely where they are on the site (i.e., the page) and where they have been before they reach that point. In other words, users can easily retrace their steps to return to a specific page.
A breadcrumb menu is usually found at the top of a page and contains links to the pages a user has visited. Using these links, website visitors can navigate through various pages to search for information or view products.
The main benefits of a breadcrumb menu on your ecommerce site include:
- Reducing the number of clicks a user has to make to navigate to higher-level pages
- It helps web visitors to locate where they are in your ecommerce store.
- Improves navigation and discoverability on a site
- Enhances natural internal linking
- Improves SEO as it also offers an additional way of including keywords
Also, when well configured, it increases the chances of your site appearing as a rich snippet on SERPs.
Sitemap Creation
Sitemaps are the blueprints of websites that enable search engines like Google to see, crawl, and index pages on a website.
Google also identifies the cardinal pages on a site through sitemaps.
Sitemaps are meant to increase crawlability. They allow you to visualize various categories, subcategories, and pages on your e-commerce site.
Step 3: Technical SEO
While unseen to shoppers or website users, technical SEO is essential in your e-commerce store. It is like the behind-the-scenes activities that keep the SEO wheel spinning.
For instance, it helps your website optimize so crawlers can see it, work on mobile, and maintain the ideal site speeds.
With technical SEO, your site enjoys better website management due to its high speed and easy access. It also leads to increased organic traffic as the site is easy to crawl.
Use the following tips to improve your Technical SEO:
Improve Site Loading Speed
Loading time is paramount for any website. Sites with longer loading times experience low traffic and high bounce rates. This is because users are not patient and will hop off a specific page or website if it takes forever to load.
Therefore, you must ensure your site has the shortest loading time possible. This improves user experience, making it easier for users to navigate and find products in record time.
Research shows that 53% of online shoppers abandon carts if pages load in over 3 seconds. As such, a slow-loading site will only lead to losses for your business.
If your site takes longer to load, reduce the loading time by:
- Reducing redirects
- Enabling browser caching
- Optimizing images by reducing their sizes
- Minifying HTML, JavaScript, and CSS
- Hosting your videos on a separate platform
When you improve your site’s backend, it loads faster and improves customer or user experience.
Make your Site Secure
No user wants to visit an unsecured site, especially with the increased internet crime rates. This is even worse with ecommerce sites where customers have to use their private information, including credit card details. Therefore, ensuring that your site meets the necessary security requirements is crucial.
Secure your site with the Secure Sockets Layer Certificate (SSL). This security layer helps guarantee that sensitive customers’ information is encrypted and protected.
But how do users identify an SSL-secured site? A closed padlock symbol appears, followed by “HTTPS” in your site’s address.
If the padlock is unavailable, most users will avoid such sites or get cold feet when offering their details before a purchase. This translates to low traffic and fewer sales.
Use Canonical Tags
Another thing you should consider when trying to figure out the technical SEO of your site is the use of canonical tags. These are HTML specifications that help avoid content duplication on your site. Usually, they are applied in the header section of a site’s source code.
Canonical tags are crucial as they show Google the URL that represents the original copy of a page.
Similar pages on a website or across different domains can lead to confusion, causing Google not to know which page to rank.
However, with canonical tags, search engines can quickly identify and rank the primary page on search pages.
Use Structured Data
Structured data enhances your ecommerce site’s product listing to help your site rank better on SERPs. It gives search engines clues or information about the type of content on the page. For instance, the following structured data is essential for your ecommerce store:
- Product name
- Price
- Availability
- Rating
Such information helps indicate what pages are on your site (e.g., product pages), allowing the search engine to present the page rank in relevant product searches.
Step 4: On-Page Ecommerce SEO
After you’re done with keyword research, technical SEO, and site structure, the fourth step is to handle on-page SEO. SEO optimization focuses on the site’s content to help your store rank better on Serps.
Regarding on-page e-commerce SEO, you must optimize the content on two main pages: product category and product pages. Here, you optimize various elements of your content, including page titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, internal link structure, headers, and images. All this helps boost your e-commerce site’s visibility, attracting organic traffic.
So, how do you optimize these elements to improve your store’s ecommerce SEO?
Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is the basis of optimized, easy-to-rank content. Identifying the right keywords ensures that users can see your content when they search for such terms on search engines.
The more visible keywords you include in your content, the higher the organic traffic your site or pages get. This can easily translate to sales, especially if you have tackled all the other aspects of your ecommerce SEO.
Numerous keyword research tools make it simple to identify the best keywords. For instance, you can use tools such as Google Ads Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, UberSuggest, etc.
Use Product Descriptions
The kind of product descriptions you post on your site determines how high you rank on the search engine results pages.
Even with the best keywords, some product descriptions may need to rank better.
For instance, a product description that needs to be longer gives Google and other search engines little to go on. Search engines need comprehensive descriptions that seem valuable for user consumption. So, instead of having short, meatless product descriptions, try to add more details to them to offer readers what they want.
You should also note that picking the manufacturer’s or supplier’s content and simply pasting it on your content pages won’t work. It leads to content duplication and is highly advised against.
Therefore, generate unique, detailed descriptions that pique the user’s interest. It should contain enough details to help potential customers make a decision.
Well-tailored on-page content is a crucial ingredient for high-ranking pages. So, do it right!
Make Use of LSI Keywords
Besides the target keywords, you should also use LSI keywords, also known as semantic or secondary keywords. These are terms or phrases closely related to the core keyword. For instance, if your core/main keyword is credit cards, terms like credit history, money, credit score, lenders, and interest rates are semantic.
All you need to do is key in the core keyword on your favorite keyword research tool and generate these secondary keywords. Distribute them naturally within the content and watch your category and product pages rise in ranks. They help create more prosperous, more targeted content.
Use Internal Links
If you insert internal links correctly, they are among the best ways to keep visitors reading your content. How?
Internal linking helps users find more content related to what they are searching on the site. With relevant internal links, users can read more content, browse more product and category pages, and ultimately make purchase decisions.
When adding internal links, ensure that the anchor text (the words or phrases) you insert a link on are related to the page you are linking to. For instance, if you choose an anchor text such as “credit score,” don’t link it to a page about making money as a drop shipper. Instead, look for pages about credit cards, credit scores, or anything related.
Also, avoid overlinking. Too many links will bother the customer and may spoil the user experience.
Create a Blog
Most e-commerce sites know how to leverage the power of a blog. For starters, a blog offers answers to customer queries regarding the products. When customers have the information they need, making a purchase decision becomes more accessible.
Blogs that use target keywords effectively and employ the best content optimization practices, such as correct meta tags, readable URLs, optimized headers, and meta titles, boost a site’s visibility on the SERPs.
If the content is valuable and factually correct, it adds credibility among users. All this leads to more traffic to your site, likely resulting in more sales.
So, research ranking blog topics and keywords related to your products and create a blog. As the blog ranks and users find the information relevant, they will consider your products. This is the first step of a sale.
Use the Right Media Mix for your Blog
Different media types appeal to different audiences or market segments. Therefore, rely on something other than one media type. In addition to written content, you can incorporate images, videos, or podcasts into your content. This will give you a broader reach of the target audience.
Also, elements like alt texts are incorporated when using images. They describe an image and make it easier for crawlers to understand it. This helps search engines like Bing, Yahoo, or Google crawl and rank your site.
Create a Meta Description
Meta descriptions are snippets of a page’s entire content. They give readers a glimpse of what to find inside the page.
Now, meta descriptions are what a user sees first on SERPs before they click to go inside the site. Therefore, they need to be appealing and be seen as offering value. This way, whoever considers the snippet finds it irresistible to click the page.
A well-optimized meta description increases the click rate, meaning more site traffic. The more people visit your e-commerce site, the higher your chances of making good sales.
Step 5: Do Off-page SEO and Link Building
Link building can be challenging. However, it can significantly improve your website or page rankings.
It involves seeking backlinks from other sites or pages. Google uses this SEO analysis method to determine the quality of a web page. The more backlinks you have, the higher the quality of your webpage. As such, Google ranks you higher than sites without backlinks.
Backlinks are like recommendations for your site by other websites. The more backlinks, the more Google sees your site as an authority site and ranks it higher on the search engine results page.
When looking for sites to backlink your pages, ensure you find authority sites (Those with high (DA) Domain authority). It would have little effect to get backlinks from low-authority sites.
Therefore, go for reputable .com sites, .edu sites, or .gov ones. Since such sites provide factual and accurate information, search engines consider them more authoritative. So, when they backlink your ecommerce site, it shares the same glory.
But how do you look for or acquire backlinks?
Get Backlinks from Associations
Many businesses, especially local brands, have associations like the Chamber of Commerce. If you’re part of one, you can ask for backlinks from other members.
Additionally, if your chamber of commerce has a website that lists businesses, make sure yours is listed. This can be a good source of backlinks for your store.
Make Guest Posts
Guest posting is also a popular option when searching for backlinks – but it may be more challenging than many think.
This option requires researching the best sites you want to link with. This mostly depends on your niche.
From here, you need to convince them to guest post for you. This is the most challenging part, as some, if not most, will refuse.
If you find an authority site that accepts your guest posting, you must create content that matches their website and users. Keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Semrush help you find the most receptive websites for guest posting. This way, you save time knocking on doors that can never be opened.
Try Press Mentions
You can also build backlinks for your ecommerce site through press mentions. And since your business might not be in a position to hire a PR firm or create a press list, you can employ the following tactics:
- Join HARO “Help A Reporter Out“
- Sign up for “Help a B2B Writer“
With these two, you’ll be receiving emails. When a lead matches your brand interests, use the email address provided to reach out and pitch a story. When you get an invitation to interview, ask them to offer a backlink to your website.
Create Linkable Content
Creating high-quality content is another easy way to get backlinks. Your content should offer value to your audience and give people a reason to share and link to it.
So, instead of running up and down trying to convince authority sites to backlink your site (which can be quite a challenge), create something they want. Getting backlinks will be easy if people can see value in your content.
You may find that some sites backlinks you without your Knowledge. Why? They have found something they can refer to or want their readers to see.
Create in-depth quality content like a comprehensive guide about a relevant topic or create infographics. Infographics are some of the most shareable types of content. They provide information that anyone can understand at a glance. Use them on a web page or blogs.
But remember that these types of content may attract some people but not all. So, experiment with different types. That way, you’ll find the best one for your brand.
Claim Unlinked Mentions
Unlinked mentions happen when people mention your products or brand but do not link to your site. For example, a site may mention a name like Shopify but not link it to Shopify.
Such mentions are perfect prospects for backlinking. Plus, it may be easy to convert them into backlinks, as it means the author knows about your brand and likes your product. When doing an outreach, convincing such an author is easy.
The challenging part of such a method is scouting the internet for brand mentions.
Luckily, you can use tools such as Semrush brand monitoring. All you need to do is configure it to your brand, and then you will get a complete report of websites that have mentioned your brand but have yet to link back to you.
Get Linkbacks From Distributors or Suppliers
Getting backlinks from distributors and suppliers is another excellent method. This is especially perfect for resellers and retail ecommerce sellers.
How does it work? Suppliers and distributors may curate lists of their online partner stores or a list informing their shoppers where they can get their products. Your work is to ensure that your site is included in the list.
Search for Broken Links
Websites link to others all the time. But these links can become broken when the site they link to shuts down.
If this happens where the link was to your competitor or has a product or content similar to what you have, reach out to the site admin or owner about replacing the broken link with yours as an alternative. When using this outreach method, be sure to do so in a way that provides value to the other site.
Leverage the Social Media
Social media platforms provide a potent space to engage and connect with people. You can share your content and build your brand. Create regular posts, tweets, and stories and link to your content.
Make use of automation tools to make the process faster and more efficient. To automate your social media management, use EcommerceBot.
This AI-powered social media manager app helps you automatically generate social media posts, schedule them, and respond to peoples’ messages and comments. This fosters a sense of community and boosts brand loyalty.
Also, leverage the power of social media influencers. Influencers can post about your brand and your products on their feeds. This not only expands your reach but also builds credibility, which can help you attract quality backlinks.
Step 6: Analyze SEO Performance
Measuring your SEO performance is a crucial step. After you have covered all other steps, you want to ensure your efforts are worthwhile. How do you do that? You can achieve that by checking and analyzing the KPIs (key performance indicators) and using them to improve your site further.
Here are the critical metrics to measure:
Check Your Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is the number of unpaid clicks coming from search engines. It’s a crucial website metric. When this metric increases, it means your SEO efforts are paying off.
The Google Search Console is one of the best tools for measuring organic traffic for your Shopify store. The platform lets you see the site’s performance.
It lists all the keywords receiving clicks and impressions and the number of these metrics over time.
Plus, it shows where the traffic is coming from, such as the number of clicks and impressions from different countries, the average click-through rate (CTR), and the position on Google.
Check Keyword Positions
Another metric to monitor is keyword position, which represents where a particular web page is ranking.
SEO aims to scoop the top page and the first position. Research shows that 75% of searchers don’t scroll past the first page. Therefore, the best results are those on the top page.
High rankings also mean more traffic to your store, which can increase your sales. Use Semrush, Ahrefs, and Moz to view and analyze your keyword positions.
Track Organic Conversions
Conversion is the ultimate goal of any SEO work. If people do not take action, all the steps are in vain.
Your ecommerce SEO should be able to convert potential customers into actual buyers.
Therefore, you need data to analyze whether people buy your products.
Google Analytics is the ideal tool for measuring conversions. Check the performance under the Reports tab, click Acquisitions, and then click User Acquisitions. Here, you’ll see the number of organic search rows. This can help you understand if the SEO work is paying off.
Ecommerce SEO Mistakes to Avoid
There are several SEO mistakes that people have made and have had dire consequences that you can avoid. They include:
- Doing Keyword Stuffing: Overusing keywords to manipulate the search engine results.
- Indexing low-quality pages: Opt for “no-index” pages that provide little value.
- Blocking Key Pages: The no-index tag on Robots.txt is good for blocking low-quality pages. However, it can be detrimental if you accidentally use it on critical pages, meaning your page won’t appear on search engines.
- Forgetting to add Schema Markup: Schema Markup is a code you use to help search engines understand information on your site. Google utilizes it to create rich results/snippets. So, if you want to earn rich snippets, add them.
- Using Click Baits: Don’t use click baits to manipulate search engines.
- Using Black Hat SEO – Using unethical practices that violate the search engines’ policies can result in penalties, including getting your site manually wiped out of the search engines.
- Publishing Plagiarised Content: Do not copy content from other sites. Create authentic and original content for your site.
- Spelling and stylistic issues can lead to low credibility and user distrust of your site.
- Not following the E-E-A-T Guidelines: Google has created guidelines that include elements like Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
- Low Site Speed: Slow-loading pages push website visitors away. And the higher the bounce rate, the more your e-commerce store will lose. Google rankings for such sites are low, translating to low organic traffic.
- Low mobile compatibility: Almost everyone uses mobile devices, including smartphones, to do things, including shopping. So, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll lose around 60% of your target audience.
Conclusion on Ecommerce SEO
Ecommerce SEO is essential for driving organic traffic and generating conversions in your online store. With these simple steps, you can leverage SEO to grow your brand and improve your bottom line.
However, while Ecommerce SEO generates free organic traffic, it is expensive. Doing SEO requires time, effort, and money. And the downside is that even after doing everything listed here, it only sometimes guarantees success. So, managing your expectations is essential even as you do it.
You can try Ecommercebot for free; no credit card is required. You agree to turn your E-commerce business into a success story by clicking the image below.
Also, it’s essential to understand that the e-commerce SEO industry is dynamic.
Follow SEO trends to stay current in the industry.
Finally, understand the search engines’ policies and algorithm updates, which can significantly impact your site. Luckily, Google is very transparent in these matters and always provides the details of its core updates.
